Boris Grushko

Boris Grushko says being a lawyer was nowhere in his mind growing up. He was a professional soccer player in Ukraine until a torn meniscus ended his career at 17, the same year he moved to the United States speaking little English. A few years later he enlisted in the Marine Corps and served almost four years. As his discharge approached, his sister, already a successful attorney, urged him to follow her route. “Now I absolutely love it,” he says of the law, “and I don’t have any regrets.”

Boris describes himself as an extrovert who genuinely cares. He finds common ground easily with anyone in a courtroom, whether a judge, a senior attorney or a peer, and says that on a family vacation most of the people at breakfast already know him by the next morning. “You tend to represent people better with care,” he says. The Marine Corps added perseverance and organization: every evening he clears his desk and writes notes for the next day because, he says, a courtroom is an organized environment.

Boris admits it was small, but it stung. While awaiting bar admission, he represented a dental practice in small claims court against a patient. The office had overbilled the patient’s insurer and repaid it in full, yet the patient sued claiming delayed treatment, despite no injury or financial loss. Boris put in up to 10 hours of preparation; the plaintiff skipped the first hearing. The judge kept asking, “Where is the money?” The practice settled. His lesson: sometimes you take a loss and carry on with your day.

Boris’ closing thought is a tribute to the United States, which he calls the greatest country on earth. He arrived from Ukraine at 17 unable to follow what people said in school and needed his sister to translate; within five to seven months he could communicate. He bused tables on weekends, sometimes getting home at 7 a.m. Marine Corps boot camp was just as disorienting at first, then became an experience he loves. “America is just a great place that gives people unlimited possibilities for success,” he says.

Boris Grushko tried prosecution and criminal defense internships in law school, enjoying the defense work for a full year. In his last year of law school he went to work for Robert Marcus, a veteran solo personal injury practitioner who treated him like a son; the two still go to the gym together. They worked 20 to 25 cases together. While studying for the bar, Boris worked at a personal injury firm in Queens, then practiced at Karasik Law Group, P.C., in Brooklyn before joining Liakas Law.

Boris Grushko is an associate at Liakas Law, P.C., in New York City, where he represents injured clients in personal injury and medical malpractice matters. The firm’s website is liakaslaw.com. He was admitted to the New York bar in 2026; when he recorded the “Celebrating Justice” podcast he was still waiting on that admission and handling small claims matters. He has not returned to Ukraine since the full-scale war began and says he does not take his freedom here for granted.